Trial opens in slaying of South Bend teen

Cheerleader's death may have been gang retaliation.

Cheerleader's death may have been gang retaliation.

December 12, 2007|JEFF PARROTT Tribune Staff Writer

All Ja-Vonda Tharbs wanted was a ride to an after-prom party. Instead, someone shot the 16-year-old Washington High cheerleader three times as she lay on a sofa in her big sister Da-Vonda's Beacon Heights apartment. She was dead by the time emergency medical personnel arrived. St. Joseph County prosecutors say the shooter was Larry "Mister" Mitchell, 21. His murder trial began Tuesday and was expected to conclude Thursday. Shortly after 1 a.m. April 29, prosecutors say Mitchell fired the shots while peering through Da-Vonda's living room window, after mistaking Ja-Vonda for Da-Vonda, 25. He wanted revenge against Da-Vonda in connection with a decadelong string of retaliatory shootings between gangs on South Bend's west side, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ken Cotter said. However, in his opening remarks, Mitchell's defense attorney, Arvil Howe, argued that any of three brothers -- alleged Lakeside gang members Jason "Batman" Reeves, Jermaine "Chee" Reeves or Terry Waddell -- were as likely as Mitchell, their childhood friend, to have killed the girl. A few days before the slaying, Ja-Vonda and Da-Vonda ran into Waddell, who told them to stay away from "the Lake," an area on the west side near the Charles Black Center, the sisters' mother, Yvonne Fountain, testified Tuesday. But Ja-Vonda, nicknamed "Kissy" and known to be affectionate and popular, refused to be intimidated, her mother said. Sophomores were too young to attend prom, but she was excited about an after-prom party at the Charles Black Center, her mother said. "'I'm going to live my life,'" Fountain recalled her daughter saying. "I'm not going to be scared of them.' They told her the Lakeside gang was going to be after them." Fountain said she could not take her because she had to work that night. Ja-Vonda's death came less than a week after someone shot Kay Deberry, mother of the three brothers, nine times in her Kinyon Street apartment. Prosecutors believe that shooting, still unsolved, was retaliation for the 2003 shooting death of Jaron Groves. Jason Reeves was acquitted of murder charges in Groves' death after a jury believed his self-defense claim. He served 2 1/2 years on a handgun charge in connection with the shooting. Shortly after Reeves' prison release in April 2006, his mother was shot. Tuesday's trial was disrupted at one point when a man in the audience began blurting out, "This trial should have been over with!" Judge John Marnocha ordered the jury out of the courtroom, then ordered the man, Timothy Tharbs, 43, to spend 30 days in jail for contempt of court. Tharbs is Ja-Vonda's paternal uncle, her mother later told The Tribune. He has two prior felony convictions, for rape in 1986 and theft and resisting law enforcement in 1995, according to court records. Staff writer Jeff Parrott: jparrott@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6320